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Sunday, December 30, 2012

* * * Past one o’clock you're probably in bedThe Milky Way is like Oka of silverNo need for me to rush I have no reasons left to stir you with the lightnings of my cable feverAnd so they say the incident dissolved*the love boat smashed up on the dreary routineWe’re even there’s no use in keeping the score of mutual hurts affliction and spleenLook here the world exudes an eerie calmThe night demands tribute in constellationsin hours like these I’d like to be the onewith ages history and the creation1930Translated by Dina BelyayevaThe translation does not include punctuation perMaaykovsky's original (scroll to IV) *Mayakovsky purposefully used a non-idiomatic expression to point out that "the incident" was not "resolved" by anyone, but rather it was broken down by unfortunate circumstances. To indicate that he came up with a novel word in Russian (исперчен), which is a blend of “spoiled” (испорчен) and “peppered” (перчен). The English word “dissolved” is used here to render Mayakovsky’s intention albeit partially.Mayakovsky's suicide note from April 12, 1930 read in part: And so they say, "the incident dissolved" the love boat smashed up on the dreary routine. I'm through with live and [we] should absolve from mutual hurts, affliction and spleen. It was written two days before he shot himself on April 14th, 1930.Biography

You are a scroll furled up upon impression;Its lines replete with words and ruminations,And every instant’s wild in its crooks.You are a woman, the witches brew creation,Which sets on fire hardly reaching lips,But fire-swallowers subdue their own shrieks By drowning mad torture in laudations.You are a woman and in this you’re just, From the inception crowned in constellations,A deity epitome within our chasms!We serve you grinding rocky foundations,We bear iron burden for your sake,And pray to you with fervor in your wake!

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